Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, is a widely accepted form of treatment for substance abuse disorders, and is incredibly effective when combined with other treatment modalities. CBT is a short-term, focused therapeutic approach to helping clients become abstinent from drugs and alcohol by using the same learning processes that the person initially used to develop dependence. CBT is based on the idea that feelings and behaviors are caused by a person’s thoughts, not outside stimuli like people, situations and events. People may not be able to change their circumstances, but they can change how they think about them and therefore change how they feel and behave. The 6 basic steps in a cognitive behavioral therapy program are:

Assessment

Re-conceptualization

Skills Acquisition

Skills Consolidation and Application Training

Generalization and Maintenance

Post-traumatic Assessment Follow-up

At Serenity Acres, the goal of cognitive behavioral therapy is to teach our clients to recognize situations in which they are most likely to drink or use drugs, avoid these circumstances if possible, and cope with other problems and behaviors which may lead to substance abuse. This therapy is customized to each patient since everyone’s triggers and past issues are unique.